People

Frank Gehry, legendary architect, dies aged 96

The architect, whose work included the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, died after a brief illness

Frank Gehry, one of the most influential and distinctive talents in American architecture, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles following a brief respiratory illness, his chief of staff confirmed. He was 96.

Gehry, the most recognizable American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright, was one of the first to embrace the potential of computer design, and pioneered a distinctively exuberant style of bravura power, whimsical and arresting collisions of form. His most famous work remains the Guggenheim Museumin Bilbao, a fantastical, titanium-clad composition on the Nervión Riverwhich received international acclaim upon its opening in 1997, heralding a new era of emotive architecture.

The project lent its name to a phenomenon – the Bilbao effect – in which decaying old cities tried to spur revival with spectacular architecture, and became, as Guardian critic Rowan Moore put it in 2019, “the icon of what would be called iconic architecture”.

Other famous works included the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, completed in 2003; Miami’s New World Center, a concert hall finished in 2011; and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, an ethereal museum in Paris completed in 2014.

The Frank Gehry-designed Cleveland Center Lou Ruvo for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Photograph: George Rose/Getty Images

Born Frank Owen Goldberg on 28 February 1929, to a working-class Jewish family in Toronto, Canada, Gehry was a relatively late bloomer as an architect. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s, where he attended the University of Southern California, studying ceramics, after a brief stint in the US army. He switched to architecture after a teacher introduced him to the work of Raphael Soriano, a pre-eminent designer of postwar modernism in southern California. As a young graduate, he changed his surname to Gehry, a decision he later attributed to a desire to avoid antisemitism.

Gehry spent several years working as a mid-level designer at a firm specializing in shopping malls before opening his own firm, in 1962, while designing houses and offices for friends on the side.

The remodeling of his own house in Santa Monica – an eye-catching clash of crude and conventional designs made of unglamorous materials, suggesting turmoil within – frustrated neighbors but drew critical attention, and inspired a mid-life crisis. “Is this what you like?” a developer client asked him in 1980, after the completion of another shopping center. When Gehry said it was, he told the Guardian in 2019, the client responded: “Well, if you like this you can’t possibly like that,” pointing in the direction of the shopping centre, “so why are you doing it?” At 50, Gehry stopped working on his commercial projects and refashioned his career as an auteur designer, working his way up from small-to-medium civic projects like the 1983 design for the Temporary Contemporary (now the Geffen Contemporary) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, to, in his 60s, the reputation-making museum in Bilbao.

The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. Photograph: Ian Dagnall/Alamy

A sociable person, Gehry maintained the kind of starry circles befitting a celebrity of American architecture – his office included photos of himself with such figures as Herbie Hancock, Shimon Peres, Princess Diana, Jasper Johns, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Quincy Jones and numerous former world leaders. He remained based in Los Angeles, and continued working into his final years, on projects such as a distinctive 76-story residential tower at 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan that appears to be rippling with glass and steel, which was completed in 2011.

“I love working,” he told the Guardian shortly after his 90th birthday. “I love working things out. I love the client interaction – I think it’s a 50-50 game. I love that we do what we do, and bring it in under budget, which no one believes, but it’s true.”

Gehry is survived by his second wife Berta Aguilera, as well as their two sons Sam, also an architectural designer, and Alejandro, an artist. His daughter Leslie Gehry Brenner, from his first marriage to Anita Snyder, died in 2008.

Story by The Guardian

People

UAE Urges Public to Improve Online Safety

The UAE Cybersecurity Council has urged the public to begin the new year by adopting smarter cybersecurity habits.

In an official post on its social media channels, the council highlighted the importance of following simple guidelines to stay safe online. These include securing home Wi-Fi networks, keeping devices and software up to date, verifying the safety of websites and applications before use, regularly reviewing app permissions, and deleting old or unused accounts.

The council also stressed the need to encrypt emails, use secure digital networks when connecting to public Wi-Fi, and back up important data.

It added that adopting these measures can help individuals better protect themselves and their information as the new year begins.

Story by Gulf News

People

Beyoncé becomes fifth billionaire musician: Forbes

Grammy-winning artist joins husband Jay-Z and artists like Taylor Swift following the success of Cowboy Carter tour

Beyoncé is now a billionaire, according to a report from Forbes – becoming the fifth musician to obtain the status.

The Grammy award-winning artist, 44, has joined the world’s wealthiest people following the success of her Cowboy Carter tour, which grossed more than $400m in ticket sales, and an additional $50m in merchandise sales. Her previous Renaissance world tour brought in about more than $579m.

Her husband, Jay-Z, was the first musician to become a billionaire on Forbes’s list in 2019. Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift have also achieved the elite status.

Though Beyoncé has launched several ventures including a hair care brand, Cécred, a whiskey label called SirDavis and a clothing line called Ivy Park, most of her personal wealth comes from her music – including revenue from her catalogue and from her global tours – according to Forbes.

In 2010, she founded Parkwood Entertainment, a management and production company, bringing control of all her artistic ventures – including music, concerts and documentaries – in house.

Her 2024 album Cowboy Carter was critically acclaimed, winning Beyoncé her first album of the year Grammy. The tour that followed the album’s release was the world’s highest-grossing music tour of 2025. The three-hour production included guest appearances by her husband, children and former Destiny’s Child bandmates.

“Across any category of the entertainment industry, there is practically no enterprise more lucrative than a musician who can sell out stadiums,” Forbes wrote – noting that the concert tour employed 350 crew members, used 100 semi-trucks worth of equipment, and required eight 747 cargo planes to move the show from city from city.

Beyoncé began her career as a member of the pop group Destiny’s Child before launching her solo career in the early 2000s. She holds the record for most-awarded and most-nominated artist in Grammy history. The artist also made an estimated $50m for the 2024 “Beyoncé Bowl” half-time show for the NFL’s Christmas game, and $10m for starring in Levi’s commercials.

The artist – who sang on her track Pure/Honey, “It should cost a billion to look this good / But she make it look easy ‘cause she got it” – has now officially got it.

In 2025, there are more than 3,000 billionaires around the world, according to Forbes.

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People

George Clooney and wife Amal granted French citizenship

The actor said privacy laws protecting children from paparazzi were a key factor in the family’s decision

George Clooney has been granted French citizenship, along with his wife Amal Clooney and their two children, according to an official decree in France’s government gazette.

The publication confirms an ambition Clooney alluded to early in December when he praised French privacy laws that keep his family shielded from paparazzi.

“I love the French culture, your language, even if I’m still bad at it after 400 days of courses,” the actor told RTL radio at the time – in English.

“Here, they don’t take photos of kids. There aren’t any paparazzi hidden at the school gates. That’s number one for us,” he said.

The now-dual US-French citizen has a long attachment to Europe that predates his 2014 marriage to his wife, a British-Lebanese human rights lawyer who speaks fluent French.

Clooney owns an estate in Italy’s Lake Como region, purchased in 2002, and he and his wife also bought a historic manor in England.

Their property in southern France – a former wine estate called the Domaine du Canadel, near the village of Brignoles – was purchased in 2021.

They also own a New York apartment and a property in Kentucky, but reportedly sold homes in Los Angeles and Mexico over the past decade.

The couple are parents to eight-year-old twins.

Clooney told RTL that although the family travels frequently, their home in France “is where we’re happiest”.

Clooney is also a director and producer, and has won two Oscars: one for best supporting actor in 2006’s Syriana and another as a producer on 2012’s Argo.

Clooney is not the only Hollywood figure seeking French citizenship. The US director Jim Jarmusch told France Inter radio on Friday that he also plans to apply for French nationality.

“I would like a place that will allow me to escape from the United States,” he said, adding that he was also drawn to French culture.

Story by the Guardian